Financial Crisis: Lessons of the Rescue, A Drama in Five Acts

Five years after the near-collapse of the global financial system, Americans could justifiably celebrate victory.

After all, the U.S. economy is growing, and, measured per capita, is back to where it was before the crisis. Unemployment is falling. Banks have regained their vigor and paid back nearly all the $245 billion taxpayers pumped into them. The stock market has recovered all the ground it lost. So has household net worth.